The Gay Adoption Conundrum
by Jeffrey A. Tucker
"I argue for the validity of the political intuition of both the
left (that gay couples shouldn't be prohibited by law from adopting)
and the right (legalization raises the specter of children placed
by courts in ethically dysfunctional environments and otherwise
used as political footballs). I conclude that the social, cultural,
and religious conflicts associated with gay marriage and adoption
are best resolved through laissez-faire."

Beyond Patriarchy: A Libertarian Model of the Family
by Roderick T. Long
To get beyond patriarchy in a free society, we must persuade parents
to give more weight to their children's preferences, and we, who will
constitute the market, should demand that women be given opportunities
in the business world.

Bourgeois Families in a Free Nation
by Roy Halliday
Bourgeois families will thrive in a free nation because (1) people with
the middle-class work ethic will migrate to a free nation in greater
numbers than people with other values, (2) a free nation will not have
laws that undermine the bourgeois family and subsidize alternatives,
and (3) people raised in bourgeois families will be more successful
than people raised by alternative institutions.

Capitalism and the Family
July 2007
by Steven Horwitz
"Those of us who value the dynamism of the free market and its power to expand the
range of human freedom could do well to apply those ideas to the recent changes in the
family and begin to see the ways in which those changes have resulted from the creative
powers of the market and have thus expanded human freedom."

The Definition of "Family" in a Free Society
by Gordon Diem
"Family in a Libertarian free society will be an open, voluntary
relationship based on mutual and reciprocal benefits family
participants receive from family membership."

Free Families to Statist Societies and Back Again
by Phillip E. Jacobson
"In the absence of the state it is likely that some entirely new
family traditions would emerge, but also that previously established
ones would continue to exist, including some which are currently rare."

A Libertarian Approach to Family Values
December 20, 2010
by dj
"I do believe that, ideally, all children should be brought up by
parents that are committed to each other and to their children, I
don't see that the state can mandate the traditional family as the
sole household arrangement. However, by the same token, it should not
be funding the breakdown of the family either."

The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child
by Robert Ingersoll
"With every drop of my blood I hate and execrate every form of tyranny, every form of
slavery. I hate dictation. I love liberty."

The Vatican and the Free Market
October 1996
by John C. Goodman
"In summarizing the results of the conference, Becker, who is not a Catholic,
said, 'I am struck by the similarity between the church's view of the relationship
between the family and the economy and the view of economists—arrived at by totally
independent means.'"

Unregulated Families: A Mixture of Old and New Forms
by Richard O. Hammer
Lack of zoning laws will allow extended families, including
divorced parents, to live and work in the same neighborhood,
marriage contracts will be enforced better, and increased
prosperity will make separation from your spouse more affordable.

Experiments in Living: The Fatherless Family
September 2002
by Rebecca O'Neill
"The weight of evidence indicates that the traditional family based upon a married
father and mother is still the best environment for raising children, and it forms
the soundest basis for the wider society."

How Do Fathers Fit In?
by The Institute for the Study of Civil Society
"Most children do best when their mothers and fathers engage in what developmental
psychologists call authoritative parenting. This style of parenting involves spending
time with children, providing emotional support, giving everyday assistance, monitoring
children's behaviour, and providing consistent, fair and proportionate discipline."

In Defense of “Deadbeat” Dads
August 4, 2004
by Wendy McElroy
"Fathers who have been imprisoned because of an inability to pay are perfect candidates
for release. Indeed, their continued incarceration comes close to establishing a de facto
debtors’ prison—an institution supposedly abolished more than 200 years ago by
President Adams."

Is There Really a Fatherhood Crisis?
by Stephen Baskerville
"Virtually every major social pathology has been linked to fatherless children: violent
crime, drug and alcohol abuse, truancy, unwed pregnancy, suicide, and psychological
disorders—all correlating more strongly with fatherlessness than with any other single
factor. Tragically, however, government policies intended to deal with the “fatherhood
crisis” have been ineffective at best because the root cause is not child abandonment by
fathers but policies that give mothers an incentive to initiate marital separation and
divorce."

The Facts Behind Cohabitation
by The Institute for the Study of Civil Society
"Some people describe cohabitation as a rebellion against traditional family forms,
striking a blow for freedom and independence. While some people do make a conscious
choice to avoid marriage, others simply 'drift into' cohabitation. Many other people
live together because it seems the best choice available at the time, even though
they see it as far from ideal."

A Man’s (and Woman’s) Home Is a Castle
January 20, 2004
by Wendy McElroy
"The fact that parents accused of child abuse are not currently accorded due
process—indeed, they are “guilty until proven innocent”—reflects a 180 degree change in
society’s attitude toward the home and the family. The family used to be viewed as a
private realm into which the law entered with extreme caution.
Since the ’70s, however, the family per se has been under attack as a breeding ground
of domestic violence, child abuse, and other brutality. This change in attitude is
largely rooted in a brand of feminism that arose in the ’70s: gender feminism, which
has exerted great influence over laws concerning women and children. Gender feminism
views men and women as separate and antagonistic classes, with the family being another
expression of gender conflict."

The Abolition of Marriage
by John Beverley Robinson
Proposes that sexual relationships be based on consent rather than marriage,
which involves compulsion.

The Case for Gay Marriage
January 1, 2011
by R. Smith
"Marriage equality is more important than many Americans think, and no
constitutionally-sound argument has been made to date against the legalization of
same-sex marriage."

The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage:
Why same-sex marriage is an American value.
by Theodore B. Olson
"Legalizing same-sex marriage would also be a recognition of basic American principles,
and would represent the culmination of our nation's commitment to equal rights. It is,
some have said, the last major civil-rights milestone yet to be surpassed in our
two-century struggle to attain the goals we set for this nation at its formation."

For Better or Worse: Gay marriage is better.
by Thomas W. Hazlett
"The institution of marriage is a public good. As H.L. Mencken pointed out,
monogamy kills passion--which is dangerously antisocial--and so preserves civil society.
But boring, established, long-term relationships would serve the tranquilizing social
function for homosexuals as much as for anyone else. Why can't the religious right see that
some of the most harmful excesses of the "gay lifestyle"--you know, the "disgusting"
practices that I read about in graphic detail whenever my name is rented to a Falwellian
fund-raiser--may flow from the lack of such calming institutions?"

Gay Marriage: An Oxymoron
July 2, 2008
by Justin Raimondo
"The very phrase “gay marriage” is an oxymoron. Homosexuality, after all, is really all about
the avoidance of marriage – and the responsibility of raising a family. It is the embrace of
sensuality for its own sake, as an instrument of pure pleasure rather than procreation. Do gay guys
really want to give up what is most attractive – to males, at any rate – about their recreational
activities, the tremendous sense of freedom it implies?"

Gay Marriage vs. American Marriage
Summer 2004
by Kay S. Hymowitz
"But beneath all the diversity, marriage has always had a fundamental, universal core
that makes gay marriage a non sequitur: it has always governed property and inheritance
rights; it has always been the means of establishing paternity, legitimacy, and the
rights and responsibilities of parenthood; and because these goals involve bearing and
raising children, it has always involved (at least one) man and woman. What's more,
among the "startling diversity" of variations that different cultures have elaborated
on this fundamental core, our own culture has produced a specifically American ideal of
marriage that is inseparable from our vision of free citizenship and is deeply embedded
in our history, politics, economics, and culture. Advocates for gay marriage cite the
historical evolution of that ideal—which we might call republican marriage—to bolster
their case, arguing that gay unions are a natural extension of America's dedication to
civil rights and to individual freedom. But a look at that history is enough to cast
serious doubt on the advocates' case."

Inviting the state into our intimacies
June 28, 2012
by Frank Furedi
"Gay marriage is presented as an issue of equal rights, but it’s better understood
as a top-down overhaul of the institution of marriage."

Is it time to get the state out of marriage yet?
November 5, 2009
by J.D. Tuccille
"The practical answer may well be the one that has long been deemed the most
radical: privatize marriage and let individuals, churches and familes decide for
themselves what "marriage" means."

Is There a Libertarian Position on Same-Sex Marriage?
June 8, 2012
by Laurence M. Vance
"If a libertarian wants to redefine marriage – or call black white, up down, or right left – then
he is perfectly free to do so, but he shouldn’t term his personal preference or individual decision
a libertarian position."

I Wed Thee, and Thee, and Thee
Autumn 2004
by Kay S. Hymowitz
"Same-sex marriage advocates tend to jeer at the argument that allowing such unions
will open a smorgasbord of marital practices. They insist that what interests them
is not to transform the institution radically but only to welcome their homosexual
friends, neighbors, and relatives to its benefits. A few recent developments suggest
that they're dead wrong."

Letter on Marriage
by Herbert Spencer
"There should be a thorough recognition on both sides of the equality of rights, and no
amount of power should ever be claimed by the one party greater than that claimed by
the other. The present relationship existing between husband and wife, where one claims
a command over the actions of the other, is nothing more than a remnant of the old
leaven of slavery.
It is necessarily destructive of refined love; for how can a man continue to
regard as his type of the ideal a being whom he has, by denying an equality of privilege
with himself, degraded to something below himself? To me the exercise of command on the
part of the husband seems utterly repugnant to genuine love, and I feel sure that a man
of generous feeling has too much sympathy with the dignity of his wife to think of
dictating to her, and that no woman of truly noble mind will submit to be dictated to."

The logic of marriage
March 3, 2011
by Roderick T. Long
"The anti-marriage-equality act (calling it the defense-of-marriage
act is the equivalent of calling the old prohibition on women's and
blacks' right to vote the defense-of-voting act) is trivially
unconstitutional; there's no way that granting special rights to
heterosexuals and denying them to homosexuals can be considered 'equal
protection of the laws.' More importantly (since justice is always
more important than legality), the anti-marriage-equality act is a sin
against human equality, and an oath to enforce it would be just as
illegitimate as an oath to commit any other crime."

Marriage and Love
by Emma Goldman
"Marriage and love have nothing in common; they are as far apart as the poles; are, in
fact, antagonistic to each other. No doubt some marriages have been the result of
love. Not, however, because love could assert itself only in marriage; much rather
is it because few people can completely outgrow a convention. There are to-day large
numbers of men and women to whom marriage is naught but a farce, but who submit to it
for the sake of public opinion. At any rate, while it is true that some marriages are
based on love, and while it is equally true that in some cases love continues in
married life, I maintain that it does so regardless of marriage, and not because of it."

Marriage and the Law
Polygamy debate evokes familiar 'rights' argument
November 28, 2010
by Debra J. Saunders
"In 2005, after Canada legalized same-sex marriage, then-Prime
Minister Paul Martin commissioned a $150,000 study by three law
professors to debunk any notion that legalizing same-sex marriage
would lead to polygamy. Big mistake. The study recommended that Canada
repeal its anti-polygamy law. While they recognized 'the strong
association between polygamy and gender inequality,' the authors
determined it wasn't fair to discriminate, for example, against a
Kuwaiti second wife who would be barred from immigrating to Canada
with their husband and another wife."

Marriage and the State
by Sean Turner
". . . the fight should not be how the federal government defines marriage.
It should not be over the federal government’s deference (or lack thereof)
to the states. No -- the fight should be to remove the state from private
consensual agreements altogether – including marriage."

Marriage License & Registration, Please
November 6, 2009
by Steve Bierfeldt
"What is relevant is that government has gotten into the business of deciding who should be allowed
to marry and who should not. As the state has ordained itself with this power, the people have meekly
submitted themselves in hopes of attaining its seal of approval."

A Marriage Proposal: Privatize It
by Colin P.A. Jones
"Couples entering into marriage should be allowed to use a partnership agreement
tailored to their own circumstances and aspirations—one that reflects the values
and expectations that they themselves attach to marriage—not forced to take or
leave a one-size-fits-all version supplied by the government. The privatization
of marriage would not only give couples far more choices, but it would also end
the strife among those who seek to turn marriage into something that they can
control by defining what it is."

The Marriage Quagmire
August 5, 2003
by Wendy McElroy
"To save its soul, marriage needs to be removed from power politics and privatized.
What constitutes a marriage should be determined by contract between the consenting
adults involved, not by government. Politicians should be stripped of the power to
dictate which consenting adults may marry or the terms of those marriages. The only
proper concern of law should be to enforce the contract and to arbitrate any breach
that occurs."

Marriage Under the Influence of the Idea of Contract
by Ludwig von Mises
"Thus marriage, as we know it, has come into existence entirely as a result of the
contractual idea penetrating into this sphere of life. All our cherished ideals
of marriage have grown out of this idea. That marriage unites one man and one
woman, that it can be entered into only with the free will of both parties, that
it imposes a duty of mutual fidelity, that a man's violations of the marriage
vows are to be judged no differently from a woman's, that the rights of husband
and wife are essentially the same — these principles develop from the contractual
attitude to the problem of marital life."

Nationalizing Marriage
Judges don’t get to decide if a law is ‘asinine’
August 17, 2010
William J. Watkins Jr.
"In the best of all worlds, marriage would be privatized so that consenting adults would be free to
enter into binding, legal agreements without permission from the state. Instead of allowing private
parties to make such choices based on their own traditions in a free society, Judge Walker has
intolerantly chosen to redefine and nationalize marriage agreements, imposing a single standard: his
own."

Rebels Without a Clause:
The hazards of legalizing gay marriage through the courts
April 15, 2009
by Jacob Sullum
"For those who agree (as I do) that the benefits of civil marriage should be available
to all couples regardless of sexual orientation, does it matter how we get to that
destination? I think it does, because the approach taken in Iowa, although
liberty-enhancing in this case, ultimately undermines a constitution's ability to
constrain government action and protect individual freedom."

Redefining Marriage Away
Summer 2004
by David L. Tubbs and Robert P. George
"Some proponents of same-sex marriage believe that its legalization will help same-sex
partners be sexually faithful. The evidence, however, suggests that acceptance of the
norm of sexual exclusivity is a minority view among homosexuals in the United States
and elsewhere. Furthermore, because intimate relations between persons of the same sex
are inherently--and not merely contingently--unconnected to procreation, there is no
principled reason to limit same-sex marriage to two persons. Thus, one can reasonably
predict that same-sex marriage is going to be intrinsically unstable, as Sex Panic
recognized in expressing its contempt for the institution. As if to confirm these points,
the first same-sex couple to receive a marriage license in Provincetown, Massachusetts,
told the press that they had an "open" marriage."

Religion, Culture and Law in Free Societies
by Tibor R. Machan
"No one is required to like or approve of it when gays marry. Certainly, no one is
forced to enter into such unions. So, to try to resist or ban such unions is clearly
not a matter of defending one’s right to liberty. It is to impose a code of personal
conduct on others who do not agree with it."

Remaking Marital Law
Does legalizing gay marriage go far enough?
July 12, 2012
by Roderick T. Long
"Just as libertarians are divided as to whether to focus their efforts on petitioning
the state for more liberty—inevitably, on the state's terms—or on building alternative
institutions that bypass the state entirely, a similar choice faces those who
favor marriage equality."

The Right To Marry
May 12, 2012
by Scott Lazarowitz
"Who the hell is the government to allow or forbid private people to establish their
own voluntary associations, relationships, contracts and marriages?"

The Separation of Marriage and State
May 21, 2009
by Jerry Salcido
"A free society based on private contractual or covenantal relationships, however, is not what either
side of Proposition 8 advocates. Proposition 8's supporters have used the state to solidify what they
consider to be the appropriate private relationship. Proposition 8's opponents, on the other hand, want
all of the state-provided benefits that come with being "married" and with that end in mind have used
the state to force everyone to accept their relationships as equal."

A Solution to Reclaim Holy Matrimony
by Bryan Rusch
"Christians can easily point fingers and cast blame that a few men wearing black dresses
have determined and given rise to homosexual marriage in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
I submit that Christians are ultimately responsible for this travesty. They gave up the
high ground to the State in matters of Holy Matrimony decades ago by acquiescing to State
licensing and forsaking the Church's First Amendment protections. In doing so, the
Christians have effectively married themselves to another god, a god whom they still
faithfully serve, and have yet to divorce from entirely. That god is the State."

They Who Marry Do Ill
by Voltairine de Cleyre
"A lecture presenting the negative side of the question, whose positive was argued under
the heading “They Who Marry Do Well,” by Dr. Henrietta P. Westbrook; both lectures
delivered before the Radical Liberal League, Philadelphia, April 28, 1907."

Three major myths about marriage.
June 22, 2009
by CLS
"First, marriage was entirely private without interference of either church or
state. Catholicism started to exert control over marriage in 1545 and then the
Protestant Reformations demanded that the state take ultimate control over marriage."

Victory Through Lexicography?
May 9, 2012
by Roderick Long
"Critics of same-sex marriage often argue that its defenders are
guilty of seeking to 'redefine' marriage. It is true that the term
'marriage' has traditionally been applied, for the most part, to
heterosexual unions specifically (though often polygamous ones, a fact
such critics persistently pretend to overlook). But it is also true
that the term 'marriage' has traditionally been applied exclusively to
relationships in which the husband held legal authority over the wife
-- relationships in which the wife was not only subordinated to her
husband but actually absorbed into his legal identity."

The weak case against gay marriage
August 11, 2010
by Jacob Sullum
"Opponents of gay marriage will ultimately lose the public policy debate if they can't do a better
job of defending their position."

Who Defends Marriage?
by Roderick Long
"Under Mr. Sobran’s favoured political régime, and mine, the legal definition of marriage,
like all legal issues, will be decided not by a monopolistic government but by private,
co-territorial enterprises competing for customers. Within the same geographical area,
some legal institutions will cater to socially conservative customers by offering only
traditional heterosexual marriage contracts and advertising boldly “We defend the family!”
while other institutions will cater to socially liberal customers by offering a wider
variety of marriage contracts and advertising with equal boldness “We defend equality!”
And the whole legal wrangle over marriage will be done with, forever."

Why Marriage Is Good For You
Autumn 2000
by Maggie Gallagher
"Recently, I had the opportunity to review the scientific evidence on the consequences
of marriage for adults with University of Chicago scholar Linda J. Waite for our new book,
The Case for Marriage. What I found surprised me. Quietly, with little fanfare,
a broad and deep body of scientific literature has been accumulating that affirms what
Genesis teaches: it is not good for man to be alone—no, nor woman neither. In virtually
every way that social scientists can measure, married people do much better than the
unmarried or divorced: they live longer, healthier, happier, sexier, and more affluent
lives."

Mother's 'Work' Doesn't Warrant Paycheck
May 9, 2006
by Wendy McElroy
"When you define the value of family meals in terms of cold cash, then you've lost the
importance of what's really going on. When you convert acts of love into acts for
profit, you've lost at life itself."

Politicizing the Housewife
November 1, 2001
by Wendy McElroy
"Choice is the key to individualist feminism and to whether or not housework is damaging
to women. To those women who choose to stay home and raise a family, it can be not only
the most fulfilling use of their time, but it can also teach management skills that
translate well into the workplace afterwards. In approaching marriage and the family,
the feminist slogan should be: “the personal is personal.” Individuals should choose,
and the state should have no role."